TCPMP | OMG!!! Now FULL Video on our Treo

Update Nov 06 - The Core Pocket Media Player (TCPMP) has now been further upgraded in a full commercial version called CorePlayer and available for both PalmOS and Windows Mobile Treo Smartphones.

There's a new application that is sure to rock a boat or two in the Treo community and it is very good news indeed for all Treonauts who like me may have been waiting to take their video-on-the go experience to the next level...

I've just finished evaluating a new open source (completely free) media player called The Core Pocket Media Player (TCPMP) and I can tell you that although it hasn't even come out of alpha testing yet that this is one monster of a media player - particularly when it comes to video. It has been as close to 'video Nirvana' on my Treo 650 as I believe I'm likely to get.

TCPMP supports all the usual video formats such as .AVI (DIVX/XVID) and .MPG but additionally and uniquely also offers playback for .OGM (OGG media video) and .MKV (Matroska) - basically it can play any video file that you can see fit to throw at it. Moreover, it can also play music in various formats although the interface experience is a very basic one and at any rate you're unlikely to use it as your main or even secondary music player. The only thing currently lacking is AC3 audio support. The various existing supported codecs include:

Audio codecs:

Mpeg 1 LayerIII (mp3)

Ogg Vorbis

Musepack

Adpcm, uLaw

Video codec:

DivX

XviD

Mpeg4-SP (plus B-frame support)

Mpeg1

M-JPEG

However all of this is not by a wide margin the most important bit of news about TCPMP. The best part is that our days of having to re-encode each of our video files for playback on a 320x320 or other small handheld screen size are gone. That's right, you have to do exactly zero, nada, niente to playback any video currently on your hard drive and view it on your Treo. Just copy the file to your SD card and you can start watching it.

As I mentioned previously, TCPMP's interface is nothing particularly pretty to look at but to be honest with this video performance it could not have one at all and I wouldn't care less - just let me enjoy the fantastic playback. The main screen offers you the standard backward/play/forward buttons, a full screen button to access the audio, video and general preferences. Nothing more is needed.

I tested TCPMP with a couple of 700MB video files encoded at a high bitrate and 576x304 resolution and another at 624x336. Both large screenshots in this post are full size 320x320 ones of these clips on my Treo and as you'll be able to appreciate the quality is absolutely stunning.

I am ecstatic to report that I had absolutely no problem loading these files, watching them and fast forwarding through them in the highest quality that you can imagine on our small Treo screen with full lip sync and no video image stuttering whatsoever. If this is not a milestone in Treo video playback then I don't know what is.

I've spent the better part of my day demoing this to anyone within eyesight to make sure that I haven't been dreaming the whole thing up. I admit that I'm still a little overwhelmed. TCPMP is absolutely a_m_a_z_i_n_g and following my post yesterday I guess that now our Treo can also be considered among the best portable video players that money can buy.

I have it running on my 1gb card. DVD pocket studio works awesome. The movies are choppy on the 600 but the 650 runs smooth.

28

by JustGotATreo | Aug 20, 2005 1:37:20 AM

Please help a treo Newbie! I have installed The Core Pocket Media Player -- love it -- but can't seem to copy my videos to my treo without the Palm Desktop or QuickCopy software CONVERTING the video to another format. I must be missing something here... how can I copy a video to my treo 650 without converting it to another format? I want to view it native, in TCPMP, but haven't been able to do that so far. Any help out in treo land for a new user? :)

29

by Jerry | Sep 14, 2005 6:56:18 PM

I can't get the sound to work, though the picture looks great. Any ideas?

30

by Peter | Sep 16, 2005 4:58:47 PM

I've been using it for some time and it just works. But, .avi files don't play the audio part. Is there any free software to convert .ami to .mpeg? Or is there a codec I need for .AVI?

31

by BasketOfPuppies | Sep 19, 2005 12:31:54 AM

With the latest version of TCPMP I too couldn't get the audio, even when I added the MP3 plugin that's part of the TCPMP ZIP file... until I added the Camera plugin, which has an audio codec or two. Try that!

32

by john | Oct 4, 2005 3:31:00 PM

I am having trouble playing files once I encode them with Nero. The video is fine on my treo 600 but I get an error message stating

I have installed all the codecs for the player. Can someone please help me?

33

by neonstorm | Oct 7, 2005 12:59:31 PM

If you're having trouble with choppiness on a T600, try reencoding the video to a lower resolution. The closer you get to 160x160, the better. The files/resolutions are probably too large for the T600 to handle efficiently. I chopped mine down and haven't had a problem since.

it will encode straight from any DVD, crop even to any format, many that are supported by tcpmp.

38

by badaxe70 | Oct 17, 2005 10:13:28 AM

I have a Treo 650 that I have downloaded TCPMP on. I have been trying to download some samples from PDAVideos web page (Matrix, 2fast2furious) to see how it works since I have heard not only is the quality impressive, but TCPMP is supposed to run pretty much any video. I have downloaded the samples to my sd card, since I do not have any movies on my desktop. I read an article on running movies on a Palm, and found he suggested if I do not have a card reader, then I should change the name of the *.pdb file to an *.avi file once it is on the card. I did that and it now shows up as a file that can be opened when running TCPMP, but when I try to open it, an Error pops up and states this is an "unknown file format". I have also tried the suffix *.ogg, *.ogm, *.mpg etc. trying to find what will help me run these samples. I have never tried to watch DVDs on my Treo and am excited about the prospect. I just can't get there. What am I missing?

39

by LordSludge | Oct 19, 2005 12:33:28 PM

Has anybody done a TCPMP + Treo 650 battery life test? The new video iPods are good for up to 2 or 3 hours of video playback. I'm curious how long the Treo would run...

40

by LordSludge | Oct 20, 2005 3:40:53 PM

Well, I'll answer my own question: I just played the new Family Guy movie from SD card for 4 hours (looped) on my fully charged Treo 650, and I'm only down to 50% power. I wouldn't have believed it myself, but it looks like 6-8 hours of straight video play are entirely possible. And this was an unoptimized 700MB DivX-encoded .AVI which also looks great on my 12' projector screen.

Why do I want a video iPod again?

Note: I did have the sound turned off, as I'm at work, and I turned off Bluetooth as well, as I was getting interruptions from BT connecting to my laptop. The phone radio, however, I left turned on.

41

by Griffin | Oct 22, 2005 1:15:23 AM

I have downloaded everything in my path and I am still having trouble getting video to my phone. I search the dropdown options and find video previously on my device. They play the visual but no audio. I am wondering if this sounds familiar to anyone and if there is any suggestions to what I need to do next to start getting video on my treo??

42

by Bull Birla | Oct 26, 2005 3:31:27 AM

Hi big brothers, I just bought a Treo-600.
Can I read my hotmail or yahoo inbox on it?
How do I type "_" (underscore) using Treo keypad? I have found it ok so far.
Can anyone suggest way to secure multimedia files from being used and deleted?
Thanks, nice blog

43

by Ken | Oct 27, 2005 8:08:16 PM

Awesome program ... just downloaded v.66 and it installed like a charm and plays beautifully ... best Treo program I've seen so far

44

by ant | Nov 2, 2005 9:45:33 AM

I used handbrake to convert a movie, the video is fine, but TCPMP doesn't support AAC audio, and that is the format Handbrake converts to. Is there another free MAC program that i can use to convert dvds?

45

by Andrew | Nov 2, 2005 9:51:45 AM

Ant - TCPMP does not officially support the AAC plugin but you can find one here:

So I downloaded the newest version and have it up and running on the treo. The problem I have is when I convert the dvd to an avi file using kheegs's post from above, and hot sync it with my memory card, it comes up as an asf file and the player won't play asf files. Can anybody help me out?

47

by Alex | Nov 9, 2005 2:39:44 PM

Hello, i use tcpmp on my tréo 650. it works fine but i have a little problem. I have always a soft reset when i turn off the application. What can i do ??
Thanks for comment

48

by Mike | Nov 10, 2005 11:24:54 PM

Hi Im trying to use tcpmp on my 650 but when i try to sync it into my 650 it says theres no file to handle this app what do I do ?

49

by Mark | Nov 14, 2005 12:12:01 AM

Re: Your Wishes Are My Command Says Treo

VoiceCall is exactly the same product as the discontinued VoiceDialerPro from VoiceIT Technologies. Toysoft took it over and promises "new features soon."

VoiceCall/VoiceDialerPro is a real pain to set up but works far better, IMHO, than the newer VoiceDialIt from VoiceIT Technologies.

50

by KK | Nov 15, 2005 12:28:06 PM

Lately I find the Treo is getting slow. Eg on the messaging using the phone, the message history some very slowly. Also the tend to hang more often now. Is it the same with others, or just my phone. I understand the 600 have this problem also.

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